Subscription These records cover 3,127,598 prisoners who spent time in Irish prisons between 1790 and 1924. The records include the name of the prisoners, and in some cases the names next of kin and victims.

Subscription The Petty Sessions handled the bulk of lesser legal cases, both criminal and civil - crimes range from allowing a cow to stray on a neighbour's land to minor assault. There are 22 million surviving records for Ireland. These records will be added to on an annual basis as the 100 year redaction rule dictates.

Free The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - Central Criminal Court, covering London and parts of Middlesex. Fully searchable text of the Proceedings and Ordinary's Accounts. The Proceedings are published transcripts of court cases. The Ordinary's Accounts are biographies of criminals executed between 1676-1772

Subscription From the website: There are 47,543 Surrey Quarter Sessions records covering a period between 1780 and 1820. The Quarter sessions were held in Surrey four times a year over a number of days, in rotation at different locations around the county.

Subscription From the website: There are 67,156 records available covering more than 150 years. The Quarter sessions were held four times a year and would generally take a number of days, depending on how many cases needed to be heard.

Subscription From the website: Established in 1880, the court's initial function was to hear criminal cases. The court sat every quarter, usually in January, April, July and October. After each session a Calendar of Prisoners was published to record the personal details of people tried at the session and their offences.

Subscription From the website: The record set comprises over 32,130 records from England and Wales. These records date from 1820 to 1843. These records are transcribed from The Bankrupt Directory by George Elwick, and include details of all bankruptcies recorded in The London Gazette between December 1820 and April 1843.

From the website: There are 26,933 records of both conditional and absolute pardons. Pardons were generally handed out to convicts serving life sentences but in the earliest years of the colony the Governor had the power to grant both free and conditional pardons as rewards for good behaviour, for special skills or for carrying out special duties or tasks.

From the website: Search 188,518 records from 1786 to 1849 and covering some of the earliest convict ships. Please bear in mind that these records do not cover every convict who arrived in Australia on those early ships. Some records have been lost or scattered to other places.

From the website: Convicts were actually encouraged to marry as Governors believed that marriage and family life were good for both the morality and stability of the colony. Various inducements were available including a convict's freedom through tickets of leave or pardons and assistance in establishing a household.

From the website: Persons convicted to transportation were sent either to Sydney or Hobart Town and at first, this seems to have been determined largely on the itinerary of the next available vessel from Port Adelaide. Usually the convicts were transported by small coastal traders which plied mainly between Adelaide, southern New South Wales [now Victoria] and Van Diemens Land.

Resources Database: Established by genealogist Lesley Uebel, the Claim a Convict website originally went online on the 19 August 1998. The site offered researchers a free service that enabled those researching the same convicts ancestors to contact each other directly by email.

Apart from describing each ship, the index gives the dates of each voyage, the ports they
travelled between, the number of male and female convicts embarking and disembarking at each
port and the route they took. Discrepancies between the number who embarked and disembarked were
often due to deaths on board, transfers to other ships en route, or landing at other ports.

As with Tasmania, New Zealand and Victoria, Western Australia also received a number of convict
boys from Parkhurst Prison during the 1840s. They had been rehabilitated in England and arrived
as free settlers destined for apprenticeships with local settlers and their convict past is
often forgotten.